1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a connector device for connecting a resinous tube or a metallic pipe (hereinafter simply referred to as a pipe) having a relatively small diameter of approximately 20 m/m or less, which is arranged as a supply passageway for supplying the air and oil generally to an automobile or a variety of machineries, equipments and so on.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This type of convenitonal connector device for connecting a small diameter pipe is constructed in the following manner. The connector device, as illustrated in FIG. 27, comprises a joint body (21) which may assumes a variety of configurations and is so formed with a screw hole (22) having an enlarged diameter as to communicate with a communication bore formed therein and including a conical seat member (23) at its inner bottom part on one side of the communication bore. An arrangement of a metallic pipe is such that a pipe (P.sub.10) in an as-intruded state is heat-brazed (W) to a peripheral part of the communication bore (24) at one end, while at the other end a pipe (P.sub.20) having a flare wall (P.sub.20') is intruded into the screw hole (22) by causing the flare wall to impinge on the seat member (23) and then screw-fastened thereto with a nut member (25).
There arise, however, some problems inherent in the above-mentioned prior art. The pipe (P.sub.10) is connected by heat-brazing (W) at one end of the communication bore (24), while the pipe (P.sub.20) is connected by screw-fastening in the screw hole (22) by use of the nut member (25) at the other end thereof. This arrangement requires a distance L shown in FIG. 27 as a working space on the occasion of connection to the joint body (21) after arranging the two pipes (P.sub.10) and (P.sub.20). As a result, the pipes have to be connected to the joint body by forcibly bending or deforming them, which takes much labor in the connecting operation and presents a probability that the pipe will remain deformed. One of temporary measures is that a hose or the like is attached to one end of the joint body in order to steer clear of such a situation in a production line of automobiles. In a state where the pipe (P.sub.10) is connected after heat-brazing (W) has been effected at one end, a whole product is forced to undergo anti-corrosive plating, which in turn considerably hinders the workability. Besides, deterioation of mechanical strength takes place in the vicinity of the heat-brazed parts of the pipe (P.sub.10) due to local overheating in connection with an unaccustomed brazing operation. Other oft-happened problems are that cracks and breakdowns are caused in combination with vibrations when performing the pipe arrangement, and screw-fastening at the other end by use of the nut member (25) adds troublesomeness to the connecting operation. In addition, the pipes are fixedly connected to the joint body (21) by heat-brazing (W) and by screw-fastening, resulting in an additional problem in which some inconvenience or an unusable state is present because of forcible connection.